Steal my Heart.

69

I snuggle closer into my jacket. It's really cold. Mid January is on in full force. Quickly, I usher myself into the girls washroom in school. It's relatively warmer here compared to outside.
A girl with blonde curls is bent over the wash basin, puking the hell out. I mentally sigh to myself. I keep finding people who need help in the washroom. And the things with me is that I can't ignore people who need help, so I find myself holding the girl's hair back as she keeps vomiting. Thank God my nose is blocked due to the cold.

The girl mutters a thanks and she gargles some water and washes her face. As she gets up, we see who it is, and it is none other Paolo's girlfriend, Astrid. The one we had a confrontation with at the start of the year. The one Alastair stood up against, for me. I do a little dance in my head remembering that moment.

Astrid is looking unhealthy and pale. There are dark circles underneath her eyes and her posture is slumped over and she can barely stand. She looks completely messed up.

I help her stand. "Astrid are you okay?"
And with that one statement, she bursts into tears. I wonder what trigger I've pulled. She sits down on the floor and keeps sobbing badly. Honestly, it feels unnerving and sad to see her like this. She wasn't a friend, but she wasn't an enemy either. I wonder for a moment if I should call Alastair and ask him to send Paolo over from their practices. But I decide against it. What if she's crying if she broke up with Paolo? I almost giggle at that thought.

When she doesn't stop crying, I hold her hand and say,"You can talk about this. It's okay to not be okay."
She says nothing and keeps staring at the distance. She's still in her cheerleading uniform, the red and golden one.
After a while of silence which feels like eternity, she speaks up.

"I'm pregnant."
I jerk my senses towards her. "What?"
I almost shout.
She sniffs. "You heard it right."
I also flop down on the chair next to her.
"Are you serious? I mean, those pregnancy test aren't always accurate, you should take two at a time..." I blabbered, still unbelieving.
She cut me off. "I've had a medical report done Gracie. It's positive. I'm going to have a baby."

I stayed silent for a while, trying to process all this new found information in my head. I said after a while,"So what are you gonna do now?"

She shrugged her bouncy body and started sobbing again. "I just don't know. They'll throw me out of school."
I scooted over her and placed a protective arm on her shoulder. "Now stop crying. It's not good for your baby. Are you planning to keep it?" I ask her, secretly hoping that she'll say yes. I'd hate it if she kills a life before it enters the world. Whatever the reasons may be, a mother should never let go of her child.

"I do want to keep it." She said.
I heaved a long sigh of relief. I don't know what I would have done if she would have refused.
"So what are we gonna do now?" I ask her.

"I really don't know." She says, wiping off a stray tear on her cheek.
"You informed Paolo?"
"Yeah..."
"What did he say?"
"He's kind of angry right now."
"Don't tell me that..."
"No, no. He's just kind of frustrated. He'll be okay. He won't leave me. We're serious."
"How long has it been?"
"Two weeks since I know."
"Come with me."
"Where?"
"Do your parents know?"
"I live at the hostel. They couldn't care any less. Money is all I get from them."
"We're going to the principal's office."
"Seriously Gracie, are you mad? We can't tell him. I won't be able to graduate. My future is going to be destroyed!"

"So okay well, tell me what are we going to do? Just sit here and wait for 9 months until that baby comes out? And don't even consider abortion." I say irritably.
She gasps.
I rub my forehead with my fingers.

"Look, I'm sorry." I keep my hands on her shoulders. "We have a big decision to make over here. I've never been so sure about anything before in my life. It's a huge responsibility, but I'm willing to share it. Are you?"

She looks at me with tears filled up to the brim of her green eyes. "Why are you doing this? Helping me out? Do even know each other?"

Now that's something I don't have an answer to. "I'm just not going to let you go through this alone. Well, you two are adults now. You people are responsible for yourselves. The only thing we have to handle is the school issue."

I held her hand and we walked towards the principal's cabin. I hadn't realized that I had been bunking the lectures. But the matter at hand right now was way too important.

We walked towards the office, Astrid trailing quietly behind me. Even I was cold from nervousness, but if you had to stand for someone, you had to be strong yourself. I clutched my sweater even more tightly to myself, a gesture I was quite used to.

We knocked on the door softly. The receptionist ushered us in and asked us to wait on the couch. I smiled reassuringly at her, even though my own heart was fluttering. Alastair might have been able to comfort me, but he had no idea of what I was going through right now.

I gulped hard as the receptionist asked us to go in the cabin. The two of us went inside and stood in front of him. Astrid was starting to shake again.

"Sir we wanted to discuss a personal issue with you."
Sir looked up for a brief while before he shut his book and rested his hands on his knuckles.
"Sir Astrid here is pregnant." I spoke up.

There was deafening silence in the room. I wished the earth would open up and suck me in. Sir had his eyes widened as he stared at Astrid expressionless.

"I'll file your leaving certificate." Sir said.